I have often wondered how crucial variables like astrological sign or shoe size relate to ASFBL performance, so I marked all the owners I personally know to be fathers and compared them to the unprocreated to see if there was a difference….it didn’t go well for the Dads, who have a collective ASFBL record of 48.5%…it’s therefore 51.5% if you are playing without the benefit of children in your life…the former group, however, undoubtedly has more Happy Father’s Day memorabilia…

INTO THE BREAK…

It is the rare week when the ASFBL and MLB results match up perfectly, thanks to the All-Star hiatus…so I thought I’d look at the hottest and coldest teams and see how they compare…Boston (17-3) and Oakland (15-5) are the hottest actual teams over the last 20 games…both had winning weeks going into the ASFBL break with Oakland having the better week at 5-2…the actual Royals are really scuffling at 4-16 going into the ASG…the ASFBL Royals similarly struggled, but Judd had them +5 WOR….and the actual Rays have been hot but have recently cooled off to 13-7 over the last 20…but Alan’s club roared into the break with the only 7-0 record in the league…nobody in the AL East had a losing week…only the A’s had a winning week in the AL west…the Chisox took advantage of a Cleveland stumble and went 4-1 to pick up 3.5 games this week and pull within 6…they are also the only team other than Baltimore who is in positive WOR territory to the tune of 2 digits…there is no doubt that the hottest divisional race is going to be the AL West, with the top 4 teams all withing 4 games of first place..of that group, only Greg Achten’s Angels have a positive WOR…the closest race, however, is in the NL East where the Andy’s Nationals and Danny’s Braves are within a half game of each other…and the Nats are tied with Al’s Padres for the best WOR in the NL…Mark Chen’s Orioles finish the first half as indisputably the team to be in WOR, a lead that might get larger depending on what the actual Orioles do with their shortstop…hats off to Tony and his Bosox, who finished the first half as the top team in the league and the only team winning more than 60% of the time…Oakland put up 24 runs in their July 10 game…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Mike Fiers of NYM had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 7/9/2018
Adrian Beltre of TEX struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/9/2018
Marcus Semien of OAK had 6 RBI against HOU on 7/10/2018
Marcus Semien of OAK had 5 hits against HOU on 7/10/2018
Stephen Piscotty of OAK hit 3 home runs against HOU on 7/10/2018
Stephen Piscotty of OAK had 5 hits against HOU on 7/10/2018
Chris Archer of SEA had 10 strikeouts against LAA on 7/10/2018
Andrew Suarez of SFG had 10 strikeouts against CHC on 7/10/2018
Jose Berrios of MIN had 10 strikeouts against KCR on 7/11/2018
Lorenzo Cain of MIL had 5 hits against MIA on 7/11/2018
Jacob deGrom of NYM had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 7/11/2018
Vince Velasquez of PHI had 11 strikeouts against NYM on 7/11/2018
Shin-Soo Choo of TEX struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/11/2018
Nolan Arenado of HOU struck out 6 times against OAK on 7/12/2018
OAK and HOU played 16.5 innings on 7/12/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 14 strikeouts against TOR on 7/12/2018
Curtis Granderson of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/12/2018
Trevor Bauer of CLE had 13 strikeouts against NYY on 7/13/2018
Mitch Moreland of BOS struck out 4 times against TOR on 7/13/2018
Gerrit Cole of HOU had 10 strikeouts against DET on 7/13/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 10 strikeouts against MIN on 7/13/2018
Jedd Gyorko of STL robbed 3 hits against CIN on 7/13/2018
Madison Bumgarner of SFG had 11 strikeouts against OAK on 7/13/2018
Jesus Aguilar of MIL had 6 RBI against PIT on 7/14/2018
Phil Ervin of CIN struck out 4 times against STL on 7/14/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 10 strikeouts against NYY on 7/14/2018
SEA and COL played 13.5 innings on 7/14/2018
Mike Clevinger of CLE had 11 strikeouts against NYY on 7/15/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 12 strikeouts against ARI on 7/15/2018
Jameson Taillon of PIT had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 7/15/2018